American Bred Episode 7: Rifts are Funny Things
by American Companion
Summary: After leaving the Angels behind, Katie is drawn through the Rift. TORCHWOOD is hesitant to accept her, and the constant feed of Rift energy that is causing Katie to go mad isn't helping. Of course, neither is the fact that something came through with her...
1. Chapter 1

_Vworp vworp vworp. Thoum. Krrik._

The Doctor poked his head out of the blue police box. He squinted his eyes, looking vaguely disappointed. "Well, I can't say this is the most exciting planet I've been on. Still, the readings looked interesting." He stepped out and looked over his shoulder. "Come on!"

Katie stepped out of TARDIS, adjusting the strap on her messenger bag. The Gallifreian words on it were extremely faded, but still there. Her red hair was tamed by a tight braid, and she was wearing a long sleeve button down shirt and gloves, as precautions against accidentally killing someone by an energy drain.

Katie made a face as she looked around herself. "After you talked so much about the random lever, I thought it would be a bit more…more."

She wasn't far off in her assessment. The planet was completely barren. There were no people, no animals, no trees, no bushes, no grass, no dirt, no sand, no loose pebbles. There wasn't even any wind. It was nothing but gray, hard, smooth rock as far as they could see.

"I wonder what's wrong," the Doctor mused. "Plenty of light, it's warm, and somehow we even have air. With so much rift energy, I would have pictured stuff everywhere."

"Is that what it is? I was wondering."

The Doctor looked curiously at Katie. "What what is?"

"Everything tastes blue, feels the way a tree looks, and when I blink, instead of the usual energy-color swirl I get, it looks the same way a cranberry sounds. Seems odd, but that's really the only way to describe it. What is rift energy?"

"A rift in time and space gives off energy. What else would you call it?"

Katie shrugged. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Is there any reason a rift in time and space _wouldn't_ spit stuff out the other end?"

"I don't-ow!"

Seemingly from out of the air, a square brown thing had flown at the Doctor and hit him upside the head. Katie bent down to pick it up. "We spoke too soon," she said, examining it. "It's a wallet. No actual ID, but there is an access card with a "T" made from hexagons. I think the currency is from 21st century Britain. Whoever lost this must be really ticked. It seems like a lot."

The Doctor scanned the wallet and flashed a smile at Katie. "You're getting better at this. 21st century, just like you said. Except…" His voice quieted as he took the wallet. He tore open a seam and pulled out a small computer chip. Peering at it and scanning it, he said, "Definitely earth. But it seems someone's been using alien technology to make it. Whoever made this is brilliant. There must be at least five different species in here. All different times too. Completely unrelated areas of space."

"What's it do?" Katie asked, taking back the wallet and the chip.

"Oh, just tracking really. Well, suppose it could also serve as a homing device."

Katie could tell that the Doctor was starting to lose interest in the computer chip. The rift mystery was far more intriguing to a mind like his. "Maybe the rift is new, and hasn't had time to start piling up."

The Doctor turned away from her, stepping away a bit, swinging his screwdriver. "No, this is an old one. Does it have someone coming by to take things? There might be a society living nearby who survives on what the rift drops off. Perhaps we're just on the wrong side of the planet. The rift might take things back after bringing them here. What do you think?" He looked back to where Katie was. She wasn't there. "Kathryn?" He started to search the horizon and call for her. "Kathryn!"

The only thing he saw was the TARDIS. The young girl he had come to trust, almost without reserve, had vanished.

"Kathryn!"

* * *

><p><em>I want it to stop. Why will it not stop? It hurts. It hurts. It drains, it fills. Stop. Stop.<em>

_ Everything is…I do not know what it is. It is there, it is not. I can see worlds, but there is nothing. I hear voices, but there is only silence. I can feel and taste and hear and see and smell and think and know, but I do not exist. What is this? Why will it not stop?_

_ Where is he? Where is the Second Friend? _

_ Why is he Second Friend? Where is First Friend? _

_ First Friend is gone. Where did First Friend go?_

_ Something is wrong with First Friend. Why are those thoughts wrong?_

_**Thoughts. I feel thoughts. I need thoughts. I am thoughts.**_

_ Second Friend is not here. Second Friend is always here. I never look, but Second Friend is always here. Why is he not here? Did I send him away like First Friend?_

_**Thoughts. Give me thoughts.**_

_ Stop. Please, stop the thoughts. I want to die. I cannot die. I have too much life in me. It takes it, it gives it. What is it?_

_ Energy. I remember that word. Important word. Why is energy important?_

_**Thoughts are energy. Energy is thoughts. I feel both.**_

_ I am energy. I float in energy. I am filled with it. I take it in until it is me. I am in energy. It steals mine, and gives its own to me. It seeks to kill me, yet cannot because I take the energy to me._

_**New energy, new thoughts.**_

_** Do not leave!**_

_ Please, stop. Stop giving me yours. Take mine if you want, just stop this place. Please, stop._

_ I want to die, but I cannot. Am I here forever?_

_**What is forever? **_

_A long time._

_ If I must be here forever, I want him to be here. I am lonely. I don't want to be lonely._

_**You will not be. I am here. I am FirstSecond he.**_

_ I want to die._

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

_**Inside TORCHWOOD Three**_

"We've got activity."

"Where?"

"It's nearby. And there's quite a lot of it."

"What is it?"

"Pulling up CCTV now."

Captain Jack Harkness, the leader of TORCHWOOD, leaned over the shoulder of Toshiko "Tosh" Sato, the resident computer specialist, to look at the computer screen, prepared to see something new. He and the rest of his team always dealt with whatever the Rift threw at them, with as little fuss as possible. It didn't always work out that way, but they tried, and they always fixed the problem. If it was technology, they catalogued and stored it. If it was a person out of time, they helped them get settled. If it was an alien…well, more often than not, the intruder ended up dead. Funny how things happened that way.

This time, nothing irregular was on the screen. It looked like a quiet night outside the Roald Dahl Plass, underneath which the TORCHWOOD Hub was located. A few people were walking about, and one female figure was lying on a bench, probably waiting for someone. Jack sensed rather than saw Gwen Cooper, the team's police liaison, at his elbow.

"I thought you said there was something," Gwen said, her Welsh accent coming clearly through.

Tosh turned to a different screen and started typing at the keys. The screen showed a graph of Rift activity. According to it, there had been a large spike only a minute before.

"I don't understand," Tosh said. "There's nothing wrong with the equipment."

"It wouldn't be the first time something came and disappeared immediately," Jack told her, his American accent clear. "Run scans, see if you pick up anything."

Tosh nodded, already working.

* * *

><p>Katie sat up straight, gasping. Without waiting to take her bearings, she fumbled around her neck for the transporterrock that hung from it. Finding it still there, she allowed herself to calm down. "Okay. It's okay. You're fine. You're alive. You're out of that thing. Breathe Kathryn breathe! Dark. Streetlamps. It's night time. I can deal with night. Looks like a city. City at night. Not a place I would have chosen, but at least there are people. Sounds like people. Smells like people. Human people! Good, human people. I can work with human people."

Katie inhaled deeply through her nose and exhaled slowly through her mouth. "Okay. It's fine. I must have been in the rift. I'm sure lots of people go through the rift. I could be anywhere and any when though." She stood up and swayed a little, though she remained upright. "Newspapers always have good information. Trashcans hold old newspapers. Find a trashcan."

She swung her head to the left and to the right. "Ah ha! How convenient, a trashcan right next to the bench. And the newspaper is on top, even better."

Pulling the newspaper out, Katie gave it a quick scan. "Let's see, February 7th, 2008. Oh wow. I'm only… I'm only 12! Well, I'm almost 13. And I am in the good city of….Cardiff. Where on Earth is Cardiff? No, wait I know this one."

Katie sat down again and closed her eyes. Instantly everything that had been unclear in the weak light of the street lamps came to life in her mind, colored by energy forms. Blue sound energy bounced everywhere, but she forced herself to ignore that, as well as the rift energy she sensed all around. She zeroed in on a group of teenagers nearby, who were chatting to themselves. She pulled the sound energy that floated off from them to her and listened in.

"Can you believe it? In class today, the teach pulled out a map of Wales and asked me to find Cardiff for him. In front of everyone! As if I didn't know where I lived."

Katie let the other sounds go. Those four sentences had told her what she needed. "So, I'm in the UK. I'm a lost American roaming the streets of Wales in the United Kingdom. How do I get through this one?" She straightened and started patting her pockets. "Maybe I still have- ah ha!"

Smiling with relief, Katie held the thick wallet firmly in her hand. "Good. At least I won't starve. And maybe the chip…" Her hopes of using the computer chip to somehow signal the Doctor vanished when she saw that it was completely fried. "Ah well. Maybe I still have…" Reaching back into her pocket, Katie pulled out a much thinner wallet and opened it. Inside was a piece of blank paper. Her grin grew wider. "I knew his extra psychic paper would come in handy. I have never been so glad to have him hide my coffee. Now I have a supply of money for a little while, I can be just about anyone, and I have my wits. Oh, and of course I still have my bag. Things are looking up. All I have to do is find a place to mingle, try and find out what I can. If this chip was some kind of homing signal, then someone around here is looking for it."

Katie sighed and looked up at the sky. "Doctor, I know this is something I swore never to do, but the situation demands it. I promise, I'll only have one."

* * *

><p>"Jack, it's moving."<p>

"What?" Jack was standing next to Tosh in a few seconds. "What's moving?"

"That Rift spike we had 5 minutes ago. It's moving. Whatever is causing it is moving."

"The Rift doesn't move, Tosh," Owen Harper, the teams medical officer, said with his usual sardonic tone.

"It's not the Rift; it's a ball of Rift energy. It's moving at about the same speed a person walks."

Jack straightened up. _And tonight seemed like it was going to be quiet for once._ he thought. "Gwen, Owen, get in the van. Tosh, keep monitoring it. I want to know where it goes."

* * *

><p>"Cardiff Arms. Well, sounds better than the "Slug and the Lettuce". I should be able to pick up something."<p>

Katie looked up and down the street, searching for a cross walk. When she saw one, she started walking towards it. She slowed down, listening carefully.

_Something doesn't feel right._ She thought. Pausing for a moment, she pulled a square shaped object out of her bag, hoping it looked like a camera in the dark, and pretended to take a picture of a sign nearby. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a dark van. There were many dark vans on the street, but this one seemed ominous.

She put the thing back in her bag and walked at a slightly quicker pace. She closed her eyes, able to see almost as well in "energy view" as in "normal view". She found the dark van almost at once, catching sight of letters embossed in the side as it drove past a street light.

TORCHWOOD.

_"A man who felt weird, like he shouldn't exist. He had a name attached to him, something to do with a burning forest that wasn't really burning.__"_

The pieces of the Doctor's memory Katie had in her own mind flared up. She started walking faster; searching for a street that turned away from the main road she was on. She couldn't outrun a car, but with three hearts, no human stood a chance against her on foot.

Finding a likely looking street, she turned onto it and began running.

* * *

><p>"It turned onto Janet Street," Tosh's voice said over the intercom.<p>

"On it," Owen replied, spinning the wheel. In the street lamps, they could just make out the running figure in front of them.

"Jack, it's going much faster than a human, even at full speed."

"Copy that. Keep on it Owen."

"I'm going, no need to get your coat in a knot."

Jack thought they were gaining on the thing until it turned into a narrow side street that a car wouldn't fit into.

"Damn!"

"You're going to have to go on foot, Jack. It's headed for the water," Tosh's voice said.

"Owen, meet up down there. Tosh, keep an eye on our position, keep Owen informed. Gwen, we're running."

"Jack, one more thing," Tosh said as he and Gwen jumped out of the van. "Whatever it is doesn't seem to know the layout of the streets. If you're careful, you might be able to corner it."

* * *

><p>"Ah, blank," Katie groaned as she came across another dead end. "Climb or turn around. Turn around."<p>

She dashed for the entrance to the alley she was in. When she blinked her energy view lit up with a bright spot, coming down the street, accompanied by another smaller, less glowy figure. "Scratch that. Climb."

* * *

><p>"You should be right on top of it."<p>

Jack gasped, trying desperately to pull air into his lungs. "How fast does that thing go Tosh?"

"I was clocking it at almost 67 and half kilometers an hour."

"42 miles an hour!" Jack forced out. "What the hell is that thing?"

"That's why you're following it. I suspect the only reason you got that close is because it was lost and had to retrace its steps so often."

"Either that or it's lying in wait to eat you," Owen said over the com.

"Shut up Owen," Gwen said.

Jack raised his hand to Gwen, motioning for silence. "Quiet on the coms." He drew a gun, knowing Gwen would do the same. They spun into the alleyway, searching for their target.

"Tosh, there's nothing here."

"It's directly to your left."

Jack and Gwen looked up.

* * *

><p>Katie dropped to the ground on the other side of the wall. She could hear them on the other side. An American and a…she wasn't sure what the female was. Probably a local. Earth accents were so tricky.<p>

They scared her. Not the woman. The woman seemed nice, caring. All her energy patterns were in nearly perfect balance. No, it was the man that terrified Katie. He was nothing but a bright silver splotch. _Time energy._ Katie thought. He had so much time energy bursting from him that she couldn't tell what or who he was.

_I'm not staying around to find out. Not unless I have to._

Katie took off running again, still unwittingly heading for the bay.

* * *

><p>"It's moving again, still headed for the water."<p>

Jack's thoughts raced. "Gwen, go along the street. I'm going to follow in a straight line."

He jumped up and grabbed the wall to his left, peering over it just in time to see something dark disappear over a wall further down.

"Gotcha."

* * *

><p>Katie was still pelting along, adrenaline aiding her steps. One of the people following her had started moving in a direct line, and they were far better at getting over the walls than she was. What made it even more terrifying was that it was the glowing man who was behind her. She still didn't know what he was.<p>

She leapt up again, grabbing on to the wall. All three of her hearts jumped when a hand grabbed her ankle and tugged. She snapped her head around and looked into a man's face. He smiled. At any other time, she would have found him attractive.

"Well hello. Pretty girls like you shouldn't-woah!"

Katie had performed some kind of move that only happens when a person is running on fear. She clung to his back like a limpet on a ship, trying in vain to pull enough energy from him to force him to drop. When he didn't seem to be weakening, she bit his neck hard and found herself unable to spit out the blood. She swallowed it, disgusted by how much she relished the taste of the energy flowing through it. She grabbed his neck firmly where she had bit him, feeling his energy surge into her, stronger than it ever had with any other victim, nearly making her black out. He gasped and staggered. Taking advantage of his shock, she pushed hard off his shoulders and sides, leaping up to the wall. Katie stole a quick look back at him, then dropped down the other side. She fought back the urge to swear when her feet hit sand, then turned to the left and started running again.

* * *

><p>"I can't keep going like this Jack," Gwen gasped out, bending over next to him as he dropped down off the wall. They watched the figure disappearing.<p>

"I know." He pressed his ear piece, calling the other two members. "Tosh, give Owen our position so he can pick us up and get ready to join us. Have Ianto ready with an open cell to put it in. Keep tracking it and let me know where it stops."

"Can't we let it go for now? Whatever it is, it's scared witless," Gwen asked, her usual compassionate self.

"No. There's something very wrong and very dangerous about her. We have to bring her in."

Jack saw Gwen's face fall, but he remained firm. He had seen the girl long enough to know she was young, but that didn't excuse anything. She moved faster than any human, and when she had touched him…

Jack was immortal. Whenever he died, he came back to life a few seconds later. It had happened more times than he could count, and living forever sucked. He hated having to live on while everyone he loved and cared for died. But with this girl…maybe she held the answer to his literal death wish. When she had touched him, he had felt part of his life drain from him, had seen her eyes glow with it when she looked at him. Even if she couldn't help him, she was scared, on the run, and dangerous to anyone she met. They had to stop her.

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

Katie fell against a wall under a bridge. While she didn't get tired from running anymore (three hearts pumping blood and oxygen really helped with that), adrenaline rushes were more potent, and made her weak after they passed. Besides, she had to collect her thoughts.

"Right," she said. "I've been sucked through a rift in time and space only to be dumped in 21st century Cardiff. While I am familiar with the century, I have no knowledge about Cardiff besides the fact it has a bay and it's in Wales and they're all British. That is not good. I still have money and psychic paper. That is good. I'm being chased by a group led a man who should not exist. Extremely not good. The existing-yet-not-existing man now knows I have something wrong with me, and will probably try to dissect me the next time he finds me. Very extremely not good. I have no idea what to do next. Bad. Very, very bad."

_Any time you would care to show up would be nice, Doctor. _She thought to herself.

Katie slid down the wall until she was sitting. She shut her eyes most of the way, closing out the sight of the underside of the bridge, but still not seeing it in energy. Focusing on her memory, she tried to recall all she could about the strange man.

"He seemed to spew energy, of all kinds, but mostly time energy. Not as an attack though. I don't even think he knows what he's doing. It's more like…he has so much he can't hold it all in. It doesn't go anywhere either, just hovers around him like a shield. It was full of life. Usually, it just feels like electric water, but this time, it was pure electricity. It hurt to absorb it like that."

She finished closing her eyes, and smiled blissfully, just for a moment. "Oh, but it tasted wonderful all the same. So pure, so refreshing." She frowned. "Don't you dare, Moore. You haven't let yourself go all energy hungry psycho nut yet, and you are not going to start now."

Katie sat watching the dull gray stone come to life with remnants of heat and the sound of her voice. Rift energy hung all around her, like a heavy blanket. After watching for a few moments, she opened her eyes and sighed.

"I'm stranded on earth, in Wales, being hunted by somebody called TORCHWOOD. I need a way to prevent them from catching me and/or dissecting me, a way to signal Doc, and a way to survive until then. Step one: avoid unwanted detection."

Unslinging her bag from her shoulder, she opened a small pocket inside. She pulled out a red velvet pouch and dumped the contents into her hand.

A collection of assorted rings spilled into her palm, some more expensive looking than others. Selecting one that appeared to be made of steel, she put it on her right hand.

* * *

><p>"Jack, the signal's gone."<p>

Looking at Tosh in the back seat, Jack asked, "What do you mean, gone?"

"I don't know. It just…vanished."

"Get it back."

* * *

><p>Katie wiggled her fingers, smiling. "I knew it was a good idea to alter that bio-damper. And the Doctor thought it was foolish." Pushing herself up off the ground, she patted the wad of money she had taken from the wallet. "Let's play offense."<p>

* * *

><p>Owen had parked the TORCHWOOD van on a side street, away from streetlamps. It was the place Tosh had last been able to receive the energy signal. She was now using every shred of intellect she possessed trying to retrieve it.<p>

"Tosh, it can't have vanished," Jack said. "Did you try—"

"Yes, I did. I've run everything I can think of five times, and there's still nothing."

"Purchases made recently? Anything on CCTV?"

Gwen spoke up in defense of Tosh. "Jack, unless you can give us a better description of her, we can't look for anything."

"I told you all I can. She was about 20, hair in a braid, pale skin, and teeth like a piranha."

Tosh looked like she was about to say something, when the roar of a motorcycle without a muffler reached them. Scarce seconds later, someone came shooting out from an alleyway, using a controlled skid to stop in front of the van. Jack, Owen, Tosh, and Gwen had no time to react when the person on the bike pointed an odd looking gun at the windshield and fired.

They all ducked in an automatic reaction. When no sounds of shattering glass reached them, they looked back at the front of the car.

The windshield was covered in thick pale pink goo, as was the rest of the car. When Owen tried to use the wipers, they couldn't even move, and the doors refused to open.

Owen swore. It sounded like he would continue, when Tosh spoke up. "Someone's breaking through the TORCHWOOD firewall."

"That's not possible," Jack said.

"It has to be. They're downloading something."

"What is it?"

Tosh's brow furrowed as she studied the screen. "A video chat. A very well protected one. It would take me days to find out where it was coming from, much less who was sending it."

A window popped open on the screen, revealing a girl with deep ginger hair, pale skin, and bright green eyes. Her shoulders were visible, looking to be clad with black leather. She grinned widely, showing perfect teeth.

"Hello!" she said, her American accent coming through clearly. "You must be Toshiko Sato, TORCHWOOD's resident techy. As much as I would love to chat with you about computers, scanners, and how to upgrade your firewall against me–though, it's pretty impressive as is—what I really need now is to chat with Bright Boy. Is he there?"

"Who are you?" Gwen asked, leaning over to look at the screen. The girl's attention shifted to her.

"Gwyneth Cooper! Nice you meet you, impressive track record by the way. Seems you did a bang up job as a police officer. Oh, and I love the accent. It would be great to sit down with you as well, but I need to speak with your C.O. Although Toshiko, if you've can talk to any of the other members, you might ask if any of them have lost an inordinate amount of money lately."

Owen turned around as best he could in the driver's seat. "What the hell is she talking about?"

The girl cocked her head, still smiling. "Is that Harper? You lost a wallet recently, medical man?"

"No, I haven't." Owen said. "My wallet's in my pocket."

"Oi vey. Isn't that just peachy," the girl said, rubbing her face. "That probably means mystery person hasn't lost it yet, and Genius hasn't made it yet and won't know how to fix it. Lovely. Oh well, we can work around that." The girl's face turned serious. "Now, I need to talk to your boss. I know he's in the car."

Tosh silently handed the computer up to Jack. He looked steadily at the girl. "What do you want?"

"To make a business proposition."

"Go on."

"I've got a tracking and homing device that I believe was made by your techy."

Jack looked behind him at Tosh. She seemed surprised. "Tosh, you know anything about this?"

"Well, I've been experimenting with new ways to explore the Rift, but it's still in the experimental stages. It won't be ready for another three months at least."

"She did a marvelous job," the girl interjected. "Well, she will do a marvelous job, but the chip is completely fried. I need that brilliant mind of hers to create a new one. The first one. Whatever. After I signal a friend with it, you need to send a wallet with a TORCHWOOD access card, a whole lot of money, and the chip through that rift of yours."

"Anything else?"

"Yes. I also want you to stop hunting me. Makes life difficult when you're on the run, especially when the only thing you did wrong was get sucked though a rift in spacetime. Which it seems hasn't even happened yet."

"What could you offer us?"

"Knowledge about a good number of your alien artifacts, as a well as a few languages that would help out in the future. I give you that, you fix my chip so I can call my friend, and in the end you get rid of me."

"Who is this "friend?"

"A very old one. He would never harm Earth even if it killed him. You have nothing to worry about from him."

"Who are you?"

The girl smiled and held up a wallet with identification. "Josephine Cole, Area 51. Temporal Physics."

"What the hell is Area 51 doing over here?" Gwen protested. Jack smiled.

"Good try, but that's psychic paper. You need to practice with it some more before using it again. Your birthday just changed."

The girl shrugged, not seemingly bothered. "It was worth a shot. I—oh oh!" The girl's smile grew wider. Clicking on something, she started typing furiously, talking all the while.

"Nice move Genius Child," she said, referring to the meaning of Tosh's name. "However, normal tracking moves won't work with me, and neither will viruses. You're good. You're very, very good, but I'm better. Trust me, I can out-code you easily. You've got no hope if I'm sitting in front of the computer."

Jack looked back at Tosh. She was staring at the screen of a different computer. "How…?" she said.

The girl laughed. "Yes, I did turn an ordinary laptop into a Quantum computer. I can show you how, if you want. Might be over your head, though. Humanity won't get there for at least another 500 years. Maybe 600. Never could remember all those dates. Anyway, the public doesn't get ahold of them until three thousand some-odd. You could be seriously ahead of the game. But first, you have to help me."

"If you have so much computing knowledge," Owen asked cynically, "what do you need us for?"

"Some of the stuff I need isn't found in a store. You seem to have a wealth of alien tech at your fingertips. Besides, it's easier to make peace with you then hide. Figured I should just get it over with and come to a truce."

There was a cracking sound, and a long split appeared in the now-hard pink stuff covering the van. The girl smiled.

"I reckon we have about two more minutes before I have to go. That should give me three minutes head start. If you want to talk, leave me a note somewhere around the area you lost sight of me. But just to add something to the pot of things I might be willing to offer you, I'll give you a sneak-peak, Harkness."

She smirked before continuing. "I may have the answer you've been looking for."

Jack stared at her, eyes wide open, skepticism evident in his expression. "What are you talking about?"

The girl's voice went down in pitch, and smoothed out. "You've lived so very long, without really knowing how you do it. I'll even guess that you've died countless times, only to come right back. Didn't you ever ask yourself how?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Jack stated. The girl shrugged.

"Alright. But, ah, I will say this." She leaned closer on the screen, as if about to impart a great secret. "You aren't the only one.

"Chat with you later, Skippy. Think about my proposition."

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

_"Chat with you later Skippy. Think about my proposition."_

Jack leaned back in his chair, refusing to sigh as Ianto walked into Jack's office. Ianto was dressed in a suit as always.

"You've watched that video several times now. What are you searching for?"

"Something. Anything that might tell me more."

"It seemed fairly straightforward to me. A simple trade. Not exactly what we're used to, but every once in a while we get lucky."

"No, she's after something more. If she really knows so much, why not download a language, or send us a file identifying one of the artifacts? I'd like to know more about who she's trying to contact, and who she is. Did Tosh finish the facial recognition scan?"

Ianto nodded. "She did, and our mysterious friend doesn't exist."

"Not possible."

"Very. There is no current record of her existence. Tosh checked every computer system we know, and the girl didn't turn up in any of them."

Jack was silent for a moment. "What about historical records? Drawings, engravings, newspaper clippings, anything?"

"Yes, that's what I came in for." Ianto handed Jack a folder with a few printouts, perhaps ten all told. Jack flipped through them. They were mostly black-and-white newspaper photos, with an occasional color copy of a painting. One painting in particular caught his eye. A red headed girl, with a face remarkably similar to the one frozen on Jack's computer screen, was drawn from the shoulders up and had an expression of gentleness, with a blazing fire of determination, strength, and confidence deep in the back of her eyes. It looked like a frozen moment in time.

"This is good. Who drew this?"

"No one seems certain, except that it was painted by someone in the mid to late 1700's. It was found with several others of the same quality in a basement in Scotland, but this was the only one with the girl."

Jack flipped passed that picture, and found a reproduction of an engraving by the American Revolutionist Paul Revere Junior. The girl was there again, standing by a booth that looked very familiar to Jack, but he didn't let on. She looked like she was inviting the viewer to join her. A blank spot on the other side of the booth hinted that there used to be another person in the engraving. Ianto explained the picture.

"Revere had this among his personal belongings. It's rumored to have been a gift for one of his daughters. The name on the back was, "True Messengers of Concord." She doesn't show up in any histories, and I couldn't find anything on the blank spot."

Jack looked through the other print-outs. They were all from newspapers, none of them much more than side shots. They were from all over, in all different times, never in the same place twice.

"She's either long living or has some kind of time travel," Ianto continued. "There's never a name attached to her face. Mixed feelings exist about her; some articles declare her to be a saint, others say she's responsible for massive destruction."

"She could be both," Jack mused.

"If I may make a suggestion," Ianto said, knowing full well Jack would welcome one, "I think you should contact her again, for a face to face meeting. Not to finalize any deals, but perhaps a Question and Answer session."

"She's hacked the system. She knows everything about us."

"About TORCHWOOD. Her last few statements in the video suggest she has an interest in you."

Jack sighed internally. It seemed everyone had an interest in him. Another reason immortality was a pain.

However, Jack was curious. He couldn't deny that. Even if this turned out to be yet another alien threat, it would be interesting to hear more from her. Or at least get a name for the report.

* * *

><p>Katie stood on a corner, slurping an iced coffee she had picked up. She was watching that Man, the one she had decided to call Skippy, as a play-on to his title of Captain. Helped make him seem like less of a threat.<p>

And ooooh boy, was he a threat. She had no idea what he was; the TORCHWOOD files had had surprisingly little on its grand leader. When she studied him in normal view, he simply looked like a man who had a thing for fashion from World War II. However, he smelled like a man from after at least the 50th century. The strap on his wrist marked him as a Time Agent. His energy readings were incredible, with so much time. Katie knew a bit about time energy, and knew it was that particular energy type that let her heal so quickly, and that was why she had survived some of the worse wounds she had had. This man had so much time energy that he must be immortal, or at least have an absurdly long lifespan.

But how did he keep it near him? How had he gotten it? How did he even know what it did? Where was he able to find so much? Why did none of it escape, but instead seemed to be part of who he was?

Who was he? Was the outfit just a thing, or a memory? How did he start running TORCHWOOD? Why did he barely exist in any sort of database, including TORCHWOOD's? Katie had stayed up two nights in a row sorting through files, and turning up almost nothing. The bits she had found were scattered, conflicting, and generally painted him as a threat. She would have to tread lightly during this meeting, which the note had specified carried no promise of a deal.

She understood what Skippy was up to; he was assessing the threat, just as she was. Katie could respect that.

Sucking down the last of her drink, she tossed it in a trash can –no, rubbish bin. She figured she should start using the terms they had over here. She shoved her hands into the pockets of her leather jacket and made sure her sunglasses were on, though because it was night she didn't really need them. She also double-checked to be sure her altered bio-damper ring was on before she worked her way through the people to where he was. Jack was sitting at a small outdoor table with a view overlooking a nearby bay. Katie still wasn't certain exactly where in the city she was, but she knew the bay was Cardiff Bay, and she knew where she was in relation to her hiding spot. For the moment, that was enough.

Katie walked until she was close enough for him to hear her. She put on a coy smile, doing her best to look like she was in complete control.

"Waiting for someone soldier?"

He looked up at her. "A handsome man with his own apartment. Until he shows, you should be perfect company."

"Perhaps not the company you want." Katie pulled out the chair opposite and sat down. A waiter brought her a menu and a glass of water. She took a sip of the water and glanced over the small menu, then asked, "How does an American like you land here?"

"Much the same way you did."

Katie's lip twitched in a smile. "Oh, I doubt that very much."

Jack glanced at Katie's hands. "Bio-damper. Good way to hide."

She looked at it proudly. "Had to tweak it a bit, but I knew it would work. Your sensors are still weak enough that I could wear this for the next three centuries and you wouldn't find me."

"Could you wait that long?"

"More than three times as long, if need be. My friend will land here at some point. It would be much easier to send a message though. I highly doubt you want me around that long."

Jack smiled lightly. "Yeah, I'm sure I'd get tired of tracking you."

"No you wouldn't. It would probably be a refreshing change to chase someone who was just as smart as you."

"Not as experienced."

"Just not as old. How many years you got?"

Katie figured Jack must not have had a reason to hide it from her, because he answered, "Creeping up on 200."

"You don't look a day over 96. How do you keep that youthful glow?"

Katie sensed the cordial tone they had created grown strained. "I'm more interested in how you know."

"I keep my eyes closed." Katie said cryptically.

Jack studied the girl. He knew that there was truth behind her statement. What the truth was he had no idea. He decided to pull out one of his own tidbits of information.

"That's odd. Most of your pictures had your eyes wide open." He pulled out the folder with the pictures of her. She started flipping through them.

"I've done a bit of digging. You get around a lot for someone so young." Contrary to what Jack had expected, the girl grinned as she looked through the pictures.

"Oh, I haven't seen this style for a long time." Katie tapped the painting that was just a face, deciding to act as though she had simply been alive for that long, rather than gone time traveling. It would help keep the Doctor out of the conversation. Katie wasn't going to get him mixed up in this if she could help it.

"Then you readily admit that it's you."

"Course I do. Remember the painter quite well. Sweet girl. Her life was ruled by chauvinists, but her daughter turned out all right. Family always kept gold pins on their persons after I left." A waiter took their orders as Katie flipped through the other printouts, recognizing and commenting on some of them. Others she passed by quickly, knowing by the headlines that she hadn't experienced some of them yet. Her personal future wasn't something she should know. Still, it was good to know that she got out of this somehow.

The last one in the stack was the engraving that Paul Revere Junior had made. She smiled again.

"Memories aren't quite so fond with this one. Some nut from the 43rd century was having a go at trying to stop the Battles of Concord and Lexington. I was so busy stopping him that I missed the first shot. Not forgiving him for that one."

"Who's the blank spot?" Jack asked, his tone demanding an answer.

"Oh, Revere probably didn't get a chance to finish, that's all."

"How about that interesting structure you're standing next to?"

"Precisely that." Katie's voice warned Jack not to push the topic. He tried another route.

"Sounds like you've been around. How does a kid like you last so long?"

"Good genetics. How does a man like you turn unkillable?"

"Travel keeps a body young."

Katie smiled lightly, as her eyelids dropped to a half-closed state. "Probably a bit more than that." Katie debated for a moment whether or not to reveal what she knew about him, but decided against it. Brought in time travel too much. Besides, best not to lay all her cards on the table so early in the game, the way he had just done. She picked up her water to stall for time. "So, Skippy, how did you end up this way?"

"I'd like to hear more about who you plan to signal, and who you are."

"Tell ya what," Katie said, setting her glass down again and folding her hands in front of her. "Let's make this fair; I ask a question, you give me an answer. A real answer, no comments disguised as answers. Then, you ask me a question, and I'll answer in the same fashion. We use complete honesty. I'd rather know now than find out something later."

Jack nodded in agreement. He knew how to play this game. Katie smiled thinly.

"Good. First question: are you going to tell the other members of your team to take their guns off me and stop listening in, or do I need to shoot them myself?"

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

Gwen gasped lightly and pulled back from the scope on her rifle. How had the Girl known? She and Owen were trained at this, extremely well practiced, almost completely invisible.

Was it possible she was bluffing, trying to scare them out?

"There's and across the street and I can see one up in the window over there."

Gwen took a deep breath, setting her eye to the scope again, preparing to fire. She had heard over the intercoms what the Girl had said. She was right about where they were at.

"Jack, get the hell out of there. She's too good, we have to come at this a new way." Gwen agreed with Owen, though she didn't say it.

Jack didn't respond. He seemed to be having a staring match with the Girl. He smiled, almost as though he had laughed, and pulled the ear bud out of his ear. The Girl held out her hand to him, her meaning clear. He gave it to her.

Gwen's eyes widened when saw the plastic melt in the Girl's hand.

* * *

><p>Katie quietly enjoyed Jack's nearly hidden surprise when she turned the plastic and metal bits into a blob. <em>Oh, sometimes energy view is sooo useful. I saw both the snipers before I even sat down, while I was still watching Jack. Makes one heck of an impression, and probably gets rid of them. Still, I have to tread gently. He's obviously not stupid.<em>

Jack picked up the now destroyed ear bud, examining it as a waiter took their orders. As soon as she was gone, he asked, "How?"

"Be specific."

"How did you do that?"

"A little more specific."

Jack gave Katie a look, but obliged her. "How did you know where they were?"

"I saw them."

"You can't have."

"Ah, but I did," Katie said, her voice smooth. "My turn again. When did you turn unkillable?"

"The year 200100."

"Time traveling man. I knew your fancy bracelet was a vortex manipulator. Never cared for them myself."

"How did you just turn my ear piece into a lump of melted bits?"

Katie smiled lightly. She was enjoying this game immensely. "I applied intense heat to it."

"How?"

Katie raised a finger. "Only one question. It's my turn again. Where were you when you became the way you are?"

"Satellite Five."

"Bit far out."

"A little. How did you turn enough heat on what's left of my communicator?"

"Oh, the air is full of it. Lots of people around here to help. The fact that its night and next to the ocean doesn't help, but there's enough."

"You control heat."

Katie smiled, holding her peace until the server set her soup in front of her. She picked up her spoon. "A question disguised as a comment is still a question. Who made you immortal?"

The expression change in Jack's face was so subtle Katie nearly missed it. "A good friend of mine."

"The way you say it suggests the person was more than friend, or you aren't sure whether or not to still call them friend. Your turn."

"Who are you trying to contact?"

"Someone who is very old and very young, very wise and extremely thick, very safe and very deadly, but above all very brave."

Jack smiled. "I used to know a person like that. Medical man."

Katie red flagged this piece of information to study closer later. "Used to. Did he die?"

"No. Just left."

Katie made a noise. "Yeah, I can understand that one." Behind her sunglasses, Katie closed her eyes again, studying Jack via energy. He was still an incredibly bright spot that washed out everything else. She noticed something at the very edge of her energy view that bothered her. She pulled her mental camera out from Jack and tried to shift over towards it.

It was a humanoid form, and had a distinct feel of the rift about it, but that could have been because everything in Cardiff felt like the rift. The form was strange, and Katie knew that she hadn't seen it before, but it also looked extremely familiar, as though it was part of her. It frightened her, somewhere deep down.

She opened her eyes, turning her head to look. There was no one there.

"Searching for someone?"

Katie looked back at Jack. "Just thought I saw something."

"Your friend back already?"

"Don't I wish. No, it's just—" Katie glanced over to the side street where she had seen the person. Someone hidden by the shadows was pointing a gun out of it; pointing it at Katie.

"Get down!" She screeched, pulling out her revolver, taking aim, and firing three shots at the same time the person shot just once. People nearby drooped to the ground or started to panic, rushing around and screaming. Katie took off after the person.

* * *

><p>Jack sat up suddenly, gasping. He touched the side of the head, sticky from the blood where he had been shot. By who was a good question.<p>

Gwen and Owen came running up. Though they both seemed just as puzzled as he was, Jack asked

"Did either of you catch what just happened?"

"No, but the Girl is long gone by now. We'll have a devil of a time finding her," Owen said.

"Were they damaged?" Gwen asked. Jack smiled.

"No. The Eye-5 lenses should have sent everything right to Tosh. They should have seen everything and recorded it. Maybe we can get some more out of all this."

* * *

><p>Katie ran as fast as she could, but the person had vanished. Literally vanished. She had been following what she was sure was a him, when suddenly she had turned a corner and there was no sign of him. Even though it was still fairly early at night, there was almost no crowd, and she would have seen him. But he truly wasn't there.<p>

Katie stopped and huffed through her nose. Someone had taken a shot at her, she'd been forced to leave her meal, and hadn't finished asking her questions. Very irritating.

She sighed. "Back to the bridge. There were a few things I hadn't looked at about him yet. Maybe I'll come across something. And then there was that one thing he said…"

* * *

><p>"Tosh, is it possible to zoom in on her glasses in this frame?"<p>

"Is there anything particular you're looking for, Jack?"

"Whoever shot me."

Tosh selected the appropriate area of the shot and moved in for a closer look. It was right as the Girl's head was turned, just before she had jumped up to fire at…someone.

"Why do you think she wore glasses at night?" Ianto asked, partially because he was trying to prod the others to think.

"Avoid facial recognition?" Gwen suggested. "She knew well enough where Owen and I were. She could have known about the Eye-5's as well."

"No, she probably would have melted them too," Owen said. "But it's plausible."

Ianto put in his own thoughts. "Not really. She probably knew that we were recording when she first contacted us. She's also seen the pictures we have of her. We have her face already, no reason to hide it. There could be something wrong with her eyes."

"Or she was recording us at the same moment."

Jack glanced at Tosh. "Maybe. Her glasses could be a scanner of some kind; there isn't any other way she could have seen Owen and Gwen."

"She did say she controlled heat," Ianto said. "She might see it as well."

"Alien technology?"

Jack shook his head. "That could be part of it, but I'm certain there's more to it."

A pop-up on the computer interrupted the conversation.

"Weevil, close to the beach. Seems to be heading towards an older bridge."

Jack was obviously annoyed at this interruption, as were Gwen and Owen, but Weevil hunting was part of their lives. No getting out of it.

* * *

><p>Katie had an uneasy feeling, the same kind she usually reserved for hidden traps and bombs she had to diffuse. Something was coming, she just didn't know what.<p>

She closed the laptop she was on, subsequently putting it into sleep mode. She would have to get back to her database searches later.

Katie had been going through everything she had found, whatever country it was based in. She had been slowly piecing together a trail that was the life of Captain Jack Harkness. Though she knew she would never find anything on his childhood, she had a fairly decent picture of his life. It was scattered, and chunks of it had been erased, but Katie had worked hard, and now it was coming together. It gave her a good weapon to use, should the need arise. She figured that Skippy didn't want certain things known about him, things that Katie could now reveal.

Putting the laptop in a hard case and removing the flash drive, Katie stood up and listened carefully. A loud snuffling permeated her mind. Katie closed her eyes, looking for energy signatures. A hunched over figure that resembled a distorted human showed up. She could tell from the energy types that it was mildly telepathic, and very strong.

The person cried out in a low, hissing roar, appearing at the tunnel entrance. It turned abruptly towards Katie and began barreling towards her. Katie immediately shifted into a stable stance, bracing for the impact.

The creature hit Katie like the cattle guard of a freight train. Katie took the blow, falling backwards and flipping the person over her head. She stood up, trying to pull out her dagger. The handle caught on the ties. Before she could free it, the intruder landed heavily on her. It bit her shoulder, and Katie started having flashbacks of the first time an alien had attacked her. This time, she knew there was no way she could get out. The Doctor wasn't there to save her.

Terror swept through her, and something in her snapped. Screeching like a wild animal, Katie rolled wildly, smashing her attacker into the ground again and again. It finally released her. She whirled on it, a red haze filling her vision as it started to stand. Forgoing any weapons, she leapt forward, latching herself onto it, shredding its clothes with her nails to have better access at the skin.

* * *

><p>Jack, Owen, and Gwen came upon this scene in time to see the Girl tearing apart the biggest Weevil they had ever seen. They stood nearly frozen in horror as the two struggled, the Girl slashing open its' back as the Weevil tried to escape. The Weevil seemed to shrink and grow wrinkled the longer it was in contact with the Girl, but that could have easily been because of the blood running out of him.<p>

It finally managed to slip out of her hold, but not for long. The Girl jumped again, wrapping her legs around the Weevil's waist. She wrapped her left arm around its shoulders, grabbing the chin with her right hand. Pulling swiftly, they heard the crack as the Weevil's neck broke.

The Weevil fell heavily to the ground. The Girl rolled off the creature's back and lay on the ground, breathing lightly, yet seemingly exhausted. Gwen let out a breath she had been holding.

The Girl immediately stood up, facing TORCHWOOD. With their flashlights, they could see that her eyes were red, and the gashes the Weevil had managed to give her were rapidly healing. In the poor light, her blood almost looked purple.

"Leave," the Girl grated out, her voice a low rasp. She was quivering with barely restrained bloodlust.

The Girl snatched a brown bag lying near her and took off. Owen started to pursue, but Jack's voice stopped him.

"Don't even try. She'll be out of sight before you can make it out from under this bridge."

"It isn't as though you could do anything to her. Did you see what she just did?" Gwen asked, breathless over what she had seen. "She just…snapped its neck like it was nothing. She was like a wild animal."

"Wild animals don't tell someone to leave her," Jack said. He crouched down next to the Weevil's body and rolled it over. He examined it, perplexed.

"Owen, come here. Maybe you'll be able to see it."

Gwen and Owen looked over Jack's shoulder.

"It's…old."

* * *

><p>Katie sat in back alley corner, knees clutched to her chest. She had drained the time energy from the Weevil, shortening its lifespan. Even if she had let it go, it would have died soon. It had been a mercy act, breaking its neck.<p>

She felt a ripple of Rift energy run across her skin, the feeling making her head spin, the smell of it bringing a blissful smile to her face. Then it passed, and she realized what she was doing.

Rain started to fall as tears moved down Katie's cheeks. That stupid energy. She hated it. She hated it with a flaming passion. Everything she touched was demolished. No good could possibly come from it. It hurt having so much inside her, locked away, incinerating her sanity and self-control. Sometimes it was all she could do not to latch on to the nearest person and drain them down. It took almost all her will to control it, to try without success to use it up, even as she drew it right back in. Injuries used up so little that it was as though nothing was taken from her store.

Energy, power, life, call it what you would, but it was her drug. And Katie was so terribly addicted to it.

"There's just so much in the world," she groaned. "Such an amount. Oh and this town. This town is saturated in flowing, running, glorious energies. People, animals, the Rift. Him."

Katie shook her head furiously, desperately trying to stop such thoughts. She couldn't allow them to take root, she just couldn't. She snapped her head back and hit it hard against the wall she was sitting against, hard enough that she blacked out. It healed almost instantly, waking her in seconds. Katie ran her fingers through her hair, her fingers catching in the sticky blood.

"I can't stay here. I can't. If I do, I know that I will lose it. I'll kill everyone. Nothing would be able to stop me. I'm too smart, too prepared, too strong. If I got shot, I'd heal instantly with so much in the air."

_**Isn't that wonderful? So much potential.**_

Katie jumped up, searching for the voice's owner. It sounded so familiar, as though she'd recently heard it.

"Who's there?"

_**A friends. Your closest.**_

"I have no friends. Now leave. Whoever you are, you aren't safe here."

_**I can't leave you Kavrin.**_

Katie inhaled sharply. "Where did you get a stupid name like that from?"

_**Because it's his. Or was it yours?**_

"Who are you?" Katie yelled. "Who are you!"

Only silence greeted her. She sat down hard, feeling her hands mend as soon as they were scraped. She dropped her head, knowing she looked like a homeless person. Then again, she was. "And now I'm going mad. I have to find a way out. I could leave. No, then I'll just be stuck on earth for who knows how long. I have to get back to the Doctor. But how? They'll never help me, and I can't risk going near them."

Katie lifted her head, a plan starting to form. "I know what I'll do. Some work, a distraction, and then I'm done. And if I can't make it…"

Katie sighed again, feeling the tears start again. "Then no one will be able to stop me."

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	6. Chapter 6

"You can't be serious Jack."

"Very serious. I wanted to try it before, but now I'm certain."

"You can't just invite her in! She might try eating one of us!"

"We need to talk to her."

"We, or you?"

Jack paused for a moment at Gwen's question. "We do. Look at this." He turned the laptop they had found so that the others could see the screen. "She's collecting information. Not just on me, but on every one of us. She's re-assembling our backgrounds, and the history of TORCHWOOD. We have to find out what she was going to do with it."

"Who says she was doing anything?" Tosh asked.

"Why else assemble information like this?" Owen asked sarcastically.

Tosh gave a nervous shrug. "Know your enemy."

"We aren't the enemy, she is!" Gwen said, the sight of the dead Weevil still fresh in her mind.

"We haven't exactly welcomed her with open arms so far," Ianto pointed out.

"You didn't see her," Gwen shot back. "She's dangerous, and the only reason to find her is to put her away!"

"And how better to do that that then to bring her here? Owen, you find anything wrong with the Weevil?" Jack said, changing his tone.

"At first glance, nothing." Owen said, a bit of pride creeping into his voice. "Then I took a closer look at its blood cells, and I found out what it was." He paused momentarily for effect. "There isn't a single ATP molecule left in him. Not a one."

Jack sat back in his chair, a perplexed expression on his face. "The ATP are missing?"

"But that's cellular energy," Tosh insisted. "You can't live without it."

"As you can see, our friend isn't exactly hopping about," Owen countered. "I don't know how she did it, but she removed every single one of them. That's the real reason he died; he literally couldn't find the energy to live. Snapping its neck was a mercy killing."

Jack rubbed his face. "If she extracted them, they have to go somewhere. My guess would be straight into her body. What she needs them for is anybody's guess."

"And you want to bring her here?" Gwen asked. "Why not meet her someplace else?"

"Because here she won't do damage to anyone."

"How would you even send her an invite?" Owen asked.

"We could attach a message to a file."

Jack looked at Tosh. "I'm listening."

Tosh's normal nervous state didn't detract from her brilliance, or the simplicity of her idea. "If she's working so hard to find out about us, why not give her something to find? Create a small picture file on you, Jack, and put it into cyberspace. She'll already have a new computer, and she'll find it. Then the message hidden in the file will give her the when and where."

"Do it."

* * *

><p>As Tosh had predicted, Katie had a new laptop, already programed to be a quantum computer. But she never got the message. She was no longer looking for files. She had thrown the memory stick into the bay after melting it, wanting it gone in case she did lose her sanity. The Rift was always there, gnawing at her, making her hungrier and hungrier for energy. It burned hotter every minute she was exposed.<p>

"I have to move faster. I have to get this done!"

* * *

><p>"Jack, it's been 24 hours."<p>

"She'll wait until the 49th hour. Just be patient."

* * *

><p>It was night. Katie had watched the two entrances to the Hub for the past three hours, watching everyone leave. Everyone but him.<p>

She pressed a remote in her hand. Once the signal was sent, she clenched her hand into a fist, crushing the device. Every track had to be completely covered. No slip-ups allowed.

* * *

><p>Gwen's cell phone buzzed by her bed. Groggily, she looked at the text. It was an automated message from the Hub. Another artifact. Lovely.<p>

* * *

><p>Katie saw Jack leave the Hub. On his way across the city to meet up with everyone else from the team. Her decoy would serve well.<p>

Moving swiftly and silently, Katie stepped onto the 'back door' of the Hub. Using another remote, she triggered the signal which started the elevator moving. Down she went, the TORCHWOOD Hub eerily lit with the blinking light of dozens of machines.

_Get to storage, find items, get out of town, rebuild chip, signal the Doctor._

* * *

><p>Owen pulled over next to the sidewalk. He had been driving to meet the others where the new artifact had come in. But this was something he had to see. He got out of the car for a closer look. The words that had been muffled by the car noise were now clear.<p>

"DELETE. DELETE. DELETE."

The word was familiar, usually causing terror in even the bravest of men, but its present source gave no reason for worry. Not when the only threat was to toy sales.

An army of toy robots was marching down the streets, assembled into ranks by type. It would have been the most ridiculous thing he had ever seen, except that he knew this had to be leading up to something. Something big.

* * *

><p>Tosh looked out her window. The marching toys worried her. Throwing on some clothes and grabbing her purse, she hurried down to her car. She had to get to the Hub. The equipment there would allow her to track the source.<p>

* * *

><p>Ianto fought the memories back as the gazed at the sight. Dressing carefully, he walked down to his car. He had to get to the Hub. No doubt the others were already on the way.<p>

* * *

><p>Gwen decided to forgo the new artifact. Something as everyday as alien junk was second to an organized force, no matter how small. Everyone needed to gather and see what they could find out. She turned the corner towards the Hub.<p>

* * *

><p>When Jack got to the location the artifact should have been, no one was there. The only thing in sight was a small, shiny cylinder. A small transmitter was on top.<p>

Carefully opening the container, he found a 12-GB flash drive. Also stuck in the cylinder was a note.

"_Payment for the rental."_

Instantly, he understood. He smiled lightly, even as he began to run back to TORCHWOOD Three.

"Clever Girl."

* * *

><p>Katie turned her head, listening carefully. She heard the Hub door open, accompanied by voices. She cursed silently. There was no real organization in storage, which had forced her to take longer to get what she needed. Still, she had thought it would take them longer to show up.<p>

She doubled over momentarily, pain lancing through her stomach. The Hub sat right on top of the Rift. She could hardly breathe with the energies of thousands of times and worlds soaking into her. Katie had to struggle to focus as baser instincts fought to take over. She didn't know if she could hold on to her humanity while those people were here.

* * *

><p>Jack arrived moments after everyone else. They were hard at work already, probably looking for the source of whatever signal was controlling the toys. An exercise in power that couldn't be over looked.<p>

"Ianto, Tosh, keep working. Owen and Gwen, get your weapons and follow me."

"What is it Jack?" Gwen asked, even as she did what she was ordered.

"We've got an intruder."

* * *

><p>Katie stuffed the last item into her bag as the door opened. She ducked behind a large box, struggling to hold herself together.<p>

"Finding everything? You know, we could have shown you around if you'd asked nicely."

It was that Man again. Of everyone in TORCHWOOD, why did he have to come? Why couldn't he have just sent his people in to take care of her?

Closing her eyes out of habit, she looked at the energy signatures of the three people. There was that Man, Gwen, and one other person she assumed was Harper. Tosh and Ianto didn't have the strength or reason to come down to face her. Then again, they could be outside of the room, waiting for her to run out.

"It would save time if you would just come out."

"I'm not risking it. Leave now."

Jack laughed. "You're in my territory now."

"You have no idea what you're doing!" Katie screeched as she felt the small group step in the direction of her voice. "I'm like nothing you've ever met. Get out now."

"Or what?" Gwen called out. "You'll shred us like you did the Weevil? Drain the energy from us?"

Katie laughed humorlessly. "Oh, you're all so small. So very thick. Even the wise TORCHWOOD doesn't understand. You think you know everything about the universe, but in reality you just bring it all down to your level." Katie shook her head, hearing her own words and hating them. She knew what TORCHWOOD did for the planet, and was thankful for it. She could only hope they could riddle her with enough bullets if she started for them.

"Then tell us where and who you are," Jack said. "If we have to go up, perhaps you'll teach us."

"Get out!" Katie yelled again, her voice near a sob. "Please, just leave now. I have what I need. I'll leave, and you never have to hear from me again. Just go before anything happens."

"What would happen? We've seen enough to be prepared for you," Owen said cockily. "What more can you possibly do?"

Katie felt herself stand up. Her muscles started to ready to attack, the flow of energy increasing through her veins as though preparing to heal or fight, whatever it was needed for. She faced TORCHWOOD, no weapon in her hand. With the small amount of sanity she still retained, she fought back the overwhelming pain long enough to gasp out,

"I could do so much to this planet. You're all so primitive. You don't even know what half of this stuff does," she said, gesturing around her. "Please, just let me leave before I have a chance to do anything. Just let me go. You have no idea how much it hurts."

"What hurts?" Gwen asked, her compassion coming through. Katie's brief smile turned to a grimace as she doubled over. The three members stepped forward, but she hissed at them, startling them with her now Texan accent.

"Don't come near me! It's hard enough to hold on, and you just make it worse." She started to sob again. "Please, just go before I lose my control."

"We can help you," Jack said. "You've read everything on us, you know what we can do." Jack stepped a little closer.

"No," Katie said, shaking her head. "No, don't…don't come over here. Please." She fell over, curled into a fetal position. She heard a faint clink and saw Jack inhale, but just barely. Her voice became little more than a whimper. "Please, I have to get back. I have to see him again. I need him. Doctor…please. Please make it stop."

Katie felt her last shred of sanity slipping away as she growled through clenched teeth, "I could kill you. I could kill you all. I could drain you so easily." She looked up at the TORCHWOOD members, who were standing over her. The red haze was blocking out everything but energy signatures. Jack was so bright, so lovely, so…delectable. Hunger filled her whole body.

Faster than the mind could comprehend, Katie sprung up, leaping for Jack. She wrapped herself around him, hands on either side of his face. Desperate for skin to skin contact, she kissed him deeply. Even as she absorbed the energy in him, her hunger pains for it grew.

Jack stumbled backwards. While he had been in situations similar to this one, he had never been fighting for his life during the occasion. Everywhere that she touched his skin, it burned as his life flowed out of him. He tried to pry her off of him, but she was stronger than he imagined.

He felt a bullet hit him as Gwen and Owen started firing. The Girl was hit most often, but it didn't stop her. She just clung on even harder, draining everything out of him. For the first time in nearly two-hundred years, Jack feared he would truly die.

A crack followed by a burst of blood signaled the bullet that ran through her brain. She loosened her grip and fell backwards, landing hard on the floor. Jack took a step back from her body, reeling from the experience. He stared at the Girl's still form. Purple blood flowed from her many wounds, and she now looked small and weak.

"What was she doing to you?" Gwen asked.

"I'm not sure. I think…I think she was draining the life out of me."

"Is she like the monster that was in the Rift last year?"

"No, this felt different. And I'm not dead."

Without warning, everything went black. Sound and light stopped. There was no heat, no thought. Later, Jack would remember it as being in a large sea of nothing, but being unable to even recognize it as that. The only thing that still existed in that darkness was the fragile beat of his heat.

_Toump toump._

_ Toump toump._

_ Toump toump._

Everything came rushing back in with a loud, horrifyingly familiar gasp, one Jack had never heard from the other side.

The Girl started hacking and coughing, trying to lift herself out of the pool of blood as bullets fell from her body.

"Shit. Not again."

She looked awkwardly up at the three astonished people. She grinned crookedly at Jack. "Told you you weren't the only one." Her eyes rolled backwards in her head as she collapsed again, unconscious.

Jack immediately issued orders. "Get gloves on. Don't touch her skin. Move her upstairs, get all her personal effects to my office and strap her securely to the examination table. I want to know everything about her internal workings, even if you have to slice her chest open to do it."

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	7. Chapter 7

"You've had two hours Owen," Jack said as he walked up to the small medical corner. "I want to know what you've found."

Owen looked away from the full body scan being projected on the wall, mild surprise mixed in with his usual sarcastic expression. "Usually takes me at least three to run everything, plus, I'm working overtime while everyone else is at home sleeping. So what are you on edge about?"

Jack thought of the key that the Girl had been carrying around her neck, now in his pocket. "Personal reasons." Looking at the Girl, he frowned at the lack of sutures on her chest. "I thought I told you to take a closer look at her internals."

Owen gestured up towards the wall. "This is as good as it's gonna get. Take a look at the I.V.'s I've got in her." Owen kept talking even as Jack peered at the needles stuck in the Girl's arm. "Skin's crawled up the needle, like her body considered it to be part of her physiology. And here," he continued, holding out a small vial. "A blood sample I managed to get."

Jack ignored it, instead pointing to the Girl's left hand, which was clenched tightly around a small leather pouch. "What's this still doing on her? It should have been included with her other things."

Owen gestured towards it, silently inviting Jack to take it. Jack reached for it. He was within three inches of her hand with his head was snapped to the side from the force of a slap. Touching his cheek, his hand came away bloody.

"What the hell?"

The Girl's eyes were open, staring blankly at Jack. Her right hand was held up in front of her, bloody fingers curved inwards towards her palm like claws. Owen injected something into one of the Girl's I.V. lines and she slowly relaxed again.

"Now before you go asking," Owen said with a sigh in his voice. "Yes, she was strapped down." He showed Jack the torn restraint. "I have no idea what's in that bag. You'll have to ask her when I pull her out of her drugs." Owen handed Jack the vial from before. Jack held the purple liquid up to the light.

"Her blood?"

"Not really sure why it's that color. But that's not the interesting part: there isn't a single ATP in her blood."

"That explains why she takes it from others."

Owen held up a finger. "I only said there was no ATP in her blood, not that she didn't have any."

"Come again?"

Owen sighed. "Didn't you take science class?"

"It's been awhile. Refresh my memory."

Giving Jack a look, Owen started explaining. "ATP is just an easy way to say adenosine tri-phosphate, which is just a simple way of saying three phosphate molecules attached to one adenosine molecule. Now, the phosphates have to be forced to stay on the same chain, like a man with three ex-girlfriends in the same room. When one phosphate gets broken off, it releases energy, and you get ADP or adenosine di-phosphate. The ADP runs through the Citric Acid Cycle, gets the third phosphate creating ATP, loses the phosphate and you're back to ADP. Never ending cycle of energy."

"Are we going somewhere with this, or did you just feel like being an ass?"

Owen continued as though Jack had never interrupted. "The mitochondria hold the Citric Acid Cycle. Usually, the ATP is immediately used to keep the body running. But with our dear mystery girl, it all goes straight to a separate organ in her body."

Owen pulled a laser out of his pocket and pointed to the projection on the wall. Jack looked up at it, listening as Owen explained his findings.

"This is where I would love to open her up and really take a good look inside. She's got three hearts, three kidneys, lungs 50% larger than our own, two livers, an enlarged spleen, two extra organs that I believe are used for storage, a few glands that don't seem to do anything, and everything else needed for life all jammed inside her. You couldn't poke her stomach or slap her on the back without bruising something vital."

Jack shrugged. "Explains why you haven't opened her up."

Owen raised his eyebrows as though he was arguing the point. Picking up a scalpel, Owen pulled down the sheet covering the Girl, exposing part of her chest. Using careful motions, he sliced into her skin. The cut healed immediately behind the blade as it moved.

"It makes sense really," he said, setting the instrument on a tray with other used equipment. "If she didn't heal that fast, she'd be constantly bleeding internally."

"Could explain the resurrection. Did you give her an anesthesia?" Jack asked. "She didn't even flinch."

"I tried that earlier, but it didn't work. Right now, I've got her on heavy morphine and diazepam, but at this rate we'll have to stock up again soon. Her body burns it off almost as fast as it goes in." Owen shook his head, sighing again.

Jack studied the Girl. There were pain lines on her face, and her eyelids were twitching as though she was dreaming. A rapid pulse beat in her neck, probably because of the three hearts.

"Anything else I should know?"

"Yeah." Owen gently pulled back one of the Girl's eyelids, allowing Jack to see it.

"So? Green eyes. Common enough."

"Not when the reason that they're green is chlorophyll."

Jack gave Owen a look. "She's not a plant Owen."

"Her eyes are. Most of the light seems to be diverted to a gland at the base of her brainstem. I'm pretty sure it works the photosynthesis process there." Owen let the Girl's eyelid close again. He shrugged.

"Your find is a walking power cell. You know, if we hooked her up correctly, she'd be a marvelous generator."

Jack was silent for a few moments. This Girl became a bigger puzzle the more he learned about her. "Brain scans?"

Owen picked up several print-outs and gave them to Jack for him to look at. Jack held them up to the light as Owen explained them. "She uses nearly 70% of her brain, rather than the usual thirty. She would go to a full 100%, but part of her cerebrum is inactive."

"She's missing her memories?"

"Not quite. See here and here? A few sparks in the area seem to say that the memories are still there. Either she can't reach them, or she truly does have selective memory."

Jack gave back the scans. "Can you bring her out of it for me?"

"I could wake her. I can't guarantee she'd be anything near lucid, with all those drugs."

"Try it, then head home."

Owen raised his eyebrows. "Are you planning something special?"

"No, but I don't know what she might have to say to some of my questions."

"You think I'd hear something new?"

Jack smiled at Owen's tone. "If I told you that her answers might have the potential to change the future or alter the past, would it matter?"

Owen nodded. "Sedatives are under the counter if she goes too nuts." He fiddled with a dial on the I.V.'s and walked out, grabbing his coat along the way.

Jack stood at the end of the table, trying to decide what he would ask first. She would be on edge, literally stripped of her belongings, and lying flat out on a table most often used for surgery. Whatever happened, it would not begin well. Maybe he would let her start.

* * *

><p>Katie gradually became aware of her surroundings. With great effort, she kept still as she waited for all her senses to check in. It didn't take her long before she realized she was on a dissection table—no, strapped to a dissection table, with needles in her arms, stripped of her clothes, and that Man standing over her.<p>

Moving very carefully, she tested the bonds holding her down. The ones on her right arm seemed to be loose, and none of the others were particularly strong. No one else was around. Maybe she could chance it. She overpowered him once; it would be simple enough to do it again.

Then she mentally shook her head. It would get her nowhere. For whatever reason, the pain the Rift had caused had lessened, but it would be back again, and she would get caught again. Might as well start out well.

"Give me back my key."

"Not until you tell me where you got it."

"I'm not saying anything more until I'm untied and have it back around my neck."

The Man held for a moment, then moved to undo her straps, dropping the key by her hand as he did so. Katie immediately sat up, holding the sheet to her chest and putting the TARDIS key back around her neck.

"Thank you. Now may I have my clothes back? I mean, I'm sure an old omni-sexual man such as yourself would have no qualms seeing me naked, but I still have morals."

Jack winced. "You don't play nice."

Katie smiled thinly. "Only when I have reason to."

The Man nodded in the direction of a glass enclosed room up two sets of stairs. "Your things are in my office, but I'm not retrieving them for you."

Katie gave the Man a look, but didn't argue. She got off the table, swaying unsteadily for a moment before finishing wrapping the sheet around herself in a crude dress. Then, moving slowly and holding onto things to support herself, she walked forward. A tug on her arms reminded her of the I.V.s.

"Ah hell…you just had to do it, didn't you?"

The Man shrugged. "I'm not medical officer."

"Still your fault. Damn it, I hate it when I have to do this." Katie put her pouch between her teeth, grateful they hadn't taken that. In two quick movements, she had ripped the I.V.s out of her arms. The wounds healed almost instantly despite the fact the needles had been in arteries.

"That's disturbing."

Katie glanced back at the Man. "I'll say. Usually takes a hell of a lot longer. Arteries are such a problem when it comes to clotting." Katie took a few more steps, determined to get up the stairs. She could feel the Man watching her.

"Problems?"

"Just a bloody headache. Nearly a migraine. Blasted pain medications. Took the edge off, had to use energy to get them out of my system, but still a bloody nuisance. I'll be fine for an hour or two though, so you don't have to worry about me losing it for a bit."

"For someone the Doctor trusted enough to give a key to, you swear a lot."

Katie looked over her shoulder at him sarcastically. "I'd like to see you keep a clean mouth in my shoes. Skin. Whatever." She set one foot on the bottom stair of the sunken medical section and hauled herself up.

"So what's your story, Skippy my boy?" Step.

"What do you mean?"

"Obvious you've met the man." Step. "Recently too, or the present shape of TARDIS's key—" Step "wouldn't mean a ruddy thing." Step, corner, step up.

"World War Two. Tried to con him into buying a fake warship. That was before he went stripes."

Katie grinned despite her pounding headache. "Yeah, I saw that memory. Loved the coat. Hated the hair. He's got great hair now." She leaned over the railing and pointed at Jack. "And to be perfectly honest, he's got a great ass right now too." She frowned. "I did not just say that." Her frown deepened.

"Hang on a parsec. Earlier…I didn't…please tell me I didn't kiss you."

Jack smiled at her obvious discomfort. "You did rather well, despite the fact you were trying to kill me."

"I'm going to be sick," Katie announced, before doubling up over the railing and doing just that. Jack jumped backwards.

"Oh gross. That was disgusting."

"I'll tell you what's disgusting," Katie snapped back, wiping her mouth off with the sheet. "Frenching a guy nearly two-hundred years older than me who judging by his original century has had hard sex with every breathing thing under the sun, and probably a few things in it. Now that is disgusting." She leaned over the railing and threw up again.

"Are you done making a mess?"

"Change the topic and I will be," Katie gasped out, managing to make it up a few more stairs.

"What's in that bag of yours?"

Katie's tone was light. "A rock."

"You were pretty protective of it a few minutes ago. Must be special."

"A keepsake. What else you got for me?"

Jack could tell that he would get nothing more out of her on that topic, so he moved to the next question. "How and when did you meet the Doctor?"

Katie smiled at the memories. "Technically it hasn't happened yet, but on a personal scale about five months back. I got zapped onto TARDIS, shot him, and he took me to the hospital. Go figure." A few more steps and she was on the base level. Katie sank down onto the floor, breathing hard. The heavy energy of the Rift made it hard for her to breath. Her headache didn't help matters.

"You got any more pain killers?"

Jack nodded and carefully worked his way around the contents of Katie's stomach to the cabinet. Not wanting to spend much time, he picked up a large liter-sized bottle of morphine and a needle. He carried them up to Katie, who was flushed purple. He hoped that was the right color for her to be.

"Here," he said, sitting next to her. He held out the bottle of morphine and the needle.

"Thanks," Katie said. Jack raised his eyebrows in surprise as Katie took the bottle, opened it and took a swig. She made a face.

"Horrid taste, but this works."

Katie reached behind her and grabbed the railing, awkwardly pulling herself back up. "Need help?" Jack asked, humor coloring his words. Katie didn't even look at him.

"Not from you, pervert. I don't even want to think about what might have happened while I was out. At least I can still feel all my organs still working, so you left those alone." She paused. "No, I'll bet you couldn't even make the cut last long enough to take a look. Oh, sometimes I love human curiosity."

"How long have you been draining the energy out of your surroundings?"

"Great place you have here," Katie said, ignoring the question. "Could do with a few upgrades. Oh, and I have to meet your Pterodactyl, Myfanwy. Rode one once. Well, not on purpose. Fell out of a tree, and it happened to get in the way. Man, was that a nutty ride."

"How long?"

"Oh, about five minutes before it managed to dump me."

The silence was audible. Katie decided to answer the real question. "I only found out five months ago. I think I've actually been doing it on a non-lethal scale for all of my fifteen and a half years."

"You're fifteen?" Jack asked, shocked. Katie flashed him a sardonic smile.

"Yup. Bet you ain't feeling so good about that kiss now, are yah creep?"

Jack didn't answer. Katie sat down in a nearby chair, trying to catch her breath. "So, now that you are thoroughly weirded out, could you be a dear and get my clothes for me?"

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, priase happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	8. Chapter 8

Owen walked into the Hub. Glancing about, he noticed that he seemed to be the only one there. Nothing appeared to be wrong, but then again, he didn't exactly know the habits of…whatever species the Girl belonged. Most of him wished her gone, while the scientist in him hoped she was still around. He wanted to examine her again and see if he couldn't find out more about how she worked.

Going directly to the medical corner, he slipped into a lab coat and set down his bag before noticing the numerous vials, petri dishes, and half-filled beakers arranged in an organized manner on the counter. Curious, he reached out for one, holding it up to the light.

A sharp smack on his knuckles caused him to drop the beaker, but it never hit the ground. The Girl came sliding under him, catching it in her hands.

"What the…?" Owe n said as he backed up.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you to not touch?" the Girl said, getting up slowly, trying not to step on the lab coat she was wearing. "Keep your hands to yourself? Eyes only? Anything like that?"

"What are you doing up? What is all this?"

"This one," she said, setting the beaker down carefully, "is AIDS. The beakers are deadly Earth-based bacteria and viruses. Small-pox, malaria, anthrax, yellow-fever, the plague, things like that. Every one of them has a LD 50 concentration of five parts per thirty, but I'm working on making it even stronger. The vials are different concentrated poisons and venoms." She sighed disappointedly. "All of these things are so weak. I'm going to have to start branching out into other planets. Trust me, you have not _seen_ sick until you catch sight of a person with Rencor. Green pus and blood starts oozing out of every pore, and you can literally end up puking your guts out. Usually ends in death."

Owen was stunned. "Why are you making these?"

"Because," the Girl said, carefully putting the contents of a petri dish into another beaker, "you are running low on pain killers. Oh, next time you order them, which needs to be very soon, get more of the liter sized containers. And see if they have it in different flavors. Maybe grapefruit."

"You're growing diseases because you have no morphine?"

"Yep. I have to take the edge off somehow." Taking a 30 mL syringe, the Girl dipped the end into the beaker of anthrax and filled it.

"Does Jack know, or will I find him in pieces somewhere?'

"He knows. So does Mr. Jones. Got here this morning. I told them both to take a hike, just in case they wanted to do something stupid like pick up a beaker," she said, giving Owen a dark look. Before he could ask anything more, she stabbed the needle into her leg and injected.

Owen watched silently as the Girl's skin rippled. She pulled out the needle, a temporary look of pain on her face as she stood ridged. After a few moments, she relaxed and smiled.

"There now. That should last me a few hours at least. Long enough to catalogue some things, anyway." Sticking out her hand, she broadened her smile.

"Josephine Cole. You can just call me Jo. Nice to finally meet you while sane, Owen Harper."

Ianto's voice gave Owen an excuse not to take the offered hand.

"Miss Cole, you know the rules of your probation. No contact."

Jo held up her hands, one of which was still grasping the needle. "I'm wearing surgical gloves."

"Don't tempt disaster."

Jo looked at her needle. "Right. Need to get rid of this first."

Jo carefully disposed of the needle before turning to look back up at Ianto. "I have several diseases growing at the moment, but as long as no one touches them we'll be fine. I just got anthrax, and the energy it took me to heal should tide me over for a couple hours, but once I run out of diseases and poisons I'll have to go back to pain killers. I don't trust the local staff around anything off planet," Jo said, a final bite to her voice as she took off the lab coat and started up the stairs.

Ianto nodded, showing his understanding. He held out a covered cup. "Jack said you would run better with coffee in your system."

Jo pulled back, looking suspiciously at the cup. "I'm going to risk angering the secretary and ask what a Brit would know about making coffee."

Ianto proffered the cup, and Jo gingerly accepted it. "I wasn't sure how you took it, so I added cream and sugar. That seems to be the usual."

"And you just failed," Jo said, handing the cup back and walking past. "Your storage is down the stairs to the right, right?"

Ianto smelled the coffee and looked puzzled. "What's wrong with it?"

Jo's voice carried up the stairs. "It's not black and I could tell that it wouldn't even make a spoon bend. Get a percolator!"

* * *

><p>Two hours later, Katie looked up from her work. She could feel the headache that preceded the energy overload starting to set in again, and knew that she had to infect herself with something soon or risk losing her sanity. Writing down a few final notes, she thought over the current arrangement.<p>

Jack would let her stay, as long as she didn't kill anyone and didn't try to leave the Hub. She would help improve the security system, but only after she had proved that she could control herself. Until then, she could do inventory.

On his part, he would set Tosh to work on the homing chip that hadn't yet been made in the current timeline, and wouldn't subject her to any sort of medical examinations. He would also not flirt with her, or at least try not to.

He had taken almost all her stuff. The only things she had left were a now nearly empty bag, her transporter, and the key to TARDIS. She had refused to do anything without that.

For the moment, it was a…well, not exactly good arrangement, but an acceptable one. How long she would be able to keep mentally sane, she wasn't sure. After all, even on TARDIS she had lost hold on reality during stretches of inactivity. And here she didn't even have her plants.

She hoped the Doctor was taking good care of them. And himself. A week had passed since she fell through the Rift, and she missed him terribly.

Tucking her pen behind her ear and picking up the clipboard, she trotted up the stairs. Maybe she would go with malaria this time. No, small pox. The small pox had been growing longer; it would be more potent.

"Skippy, you have an awful lot of extra-terrestrial beauty products. All perfectly safe, if any of you want to use them. Oh, and the board game count is already piling up. You've even got Malkarian Racing Beetles!"

"Jack isn't here."

Katie looked over at Tosh. She was sitting by the computers, watching Katie like a mouse might watch a lion. Katie smiled lightly and slipped into Japanese.

"Forgive me for intruding. Would you be allowed to tell me where he is?"

Tosh seemed slightly surprised at Katie's fluency, but responded in kind. "There was a disturbance. Strange as it may sound, kitchen appliances all across Cardiff started attacking people. They're going to the signals' source to stop it. Unfortunately, there are three separate places it could be. The interesting thing is that it seems to be the same signal as was directing the toy robots yesterday."

"May I?" Katie asked, gesturing at the computers. Tosh hesitated, and Katie quickly added, "I won't push any buttons."

Tosh nodded agreement, and Katie moved to stand behind her. Each screen showed a different place the signal could be from.

"Can you break into the T.V. networks from here? Maybe the satellite dishes?"

"I could."

"Try hijacking those and changing the signal receptors to search for your signals," Katie said, backing up. Tosh held in every brainwave she had, but her other energy releases were incredibly high. Right now would not be a good time to kill someone.

"It would interrupt the original broadcasting," Tosh protested. "People would notice. TORCHWOOD tries to stay out of public eye."

"So that's why you drive around in a dark van with your name emblazoned on it," Katie said, switching back to English. "Look, if my blender was trying to eat me, I wouldn't be sitting and watching_ Lone Ranger_ reruns. If someone does notice, they'll figure the television is turning on them as well. Just give it a shot. If it doesn't work, you're no worse off than before."

Katie walked down to the medical corner, hearing Tosh's fingers flying across the keyboard. By the time Katie had recovered from small pox, Tosh had gotten into the network satellites. Katie watched silently as Tosh put them to use finding the signal. A moment later, she had it, and called Jack with the address.

"You're pretty good at this, Toshiko," Katie said. "I still think your system needs an upgrade, but it's not bad for your century."

"What century are you from?"

"Originally or currently?"

"Originally," Tosh said after a moment's hesitation.

"This one. Technically, I haven't left it yet. I'm still over in America."

"Where are you from in the States?"

Katie smiled mysteriously. "Oh, just somewhere."

"Afraid to say?"

Katie's smile turned wry. "I've got…well, we'll just call them unfriendly acquaintances trying to…acquire me. The less you know and the sooner I leave, the safer you'll be. Even now, when I'm still oblivious to it all, it's better you not know." Katie headed back for the stairs. "When Skippy shows, tell him I want to know where to put the warp star I came across. It was hidden in a puzzle box, and I can't simply throw it out. He'll probably know what I mean."

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	9. Chapter 9

Katie placed the musical instrument onto the appropriate shelf and wrote down the name and number in the book for the section. She looked around, surveying her work. Over the past several weeks, she had sorted and catalogued endlessly, and the store room was finally beginning to have a sense of order about it.

She had argued with Owen over the use of the medical supplies until Jack finally gave her permission to work on her diseases elsewhere. She had found a way to put them into a candy like form, which was much more pleasant than the injections. Owen was an interesting character, and gave her someone to spar with. What was most fun was calling him a crude word in another language, and leaving him to figure out what it meant from context.

Toshiko was another matter. Katie got along very well with her. Jack had finally let up on her restriction for the computer, and she had immediately set to work on it. She and Tosh had stayed up for thirty-six hours straight redesigning the firewall, until even Katie wouldn't have been able to break through. She had improved the sensors, and written language programs for every alien tongue she knew.

Katie and Gwen were pleasant, but not close, and Katie kept as far away from Jack as she could. Not only did he bother her, but unless she had just been artificially struck with illness, his energy scent was too powerful to resist, something that had definitely been found out the hard way. Fortunately, she hadn't kissed him that time. She had ripped his shirt off though. A slight smile touched her face. Looking back, it had certainly been…interesting trying to explain why had had her pinned to ground when Ianto had found them.

Ianto was another puzzle to Katie. The other TORCHWOOD members moved like he wasn't there, though it was obvious they wouldn't have been able to function without him. He did everything, from covering their tracks to keeping everything running smoothly. He was the backbone of the group. Jack might have been the brain, but even he could be replaced. Katie was just very careful not to get on Ianto's bad side, although she hadn't been able to resist teaching how to make coffee the right way.

Katie sighed. Tosh was still working on the chip, and was making some progress but hadn't really gotten anywhere. And if Tosh was having problems, Katie couldn't do much to help out.

Katie sighed again, this time in a frustrated manner. She felt so trapped, so useless! Every day, all she ever did was shelve things. She never got to go outside, and the only excitement she ever got was when she tested the alien weapons at the firing range. For the most part, it was inactivity, and she hated inactivity. It didn't help that yesterday she had translated and read a book of legends about "the blue box" and "the traveling physician." She should be out there now, but instead she was trapped on earth. She couldn't sleep, was technically popping pills, and her nerves were going raw. Not good.

She started walking slowly back to her desk, thoughts taking a melancholy turn. What if the Doctor wasn't even looking for her? He might not exactly be missing her. He was under no obligation to come after her even if she did call. She had been pulled through the Rift barely after invading his privacy and committing genocide. Not exactly the best way to make a good impression on the Doctor. And then there were her plants. He had never liked those. She was a stray, and now she was gone, out of his hair, no longer his problem. What if she never saw him again, and was left stuck underground in Cardiff forever?

A breeze rushed by, making the hair on the back of her neck rise. She spun about, expecting to see someone, but the space was empty.

"Yello? Harper, if you're trying to pull a fast one, I'll have you know that I'm standing next to the tranquilizer guns, and I'm not afraid to put you out."

_**Kavrin.**_

Katie's eyes narrowed. The voice, the thought, whatever it was, had been plaguing her the past few weeks as well. Always when she was alone, always when she thought of the Doctor, and only if it had been an hour since her last disease candy.

"There you go again with the weird names. Gonna show yourself this time instead of playing hide and seek?"

_**You already know what I look like. I am FirstSecond Friend.**_

"Yeah, that makes it a whole lot clearer," Katie said sarcastically. "Tell me another riddle so that I can solve the first one."

_**When is it the worst for a friend to betray a friend?**_

Katie swallowed the sudden lump in her throat, pushing the memories back down as well. "Why would that matter? We aren't exactly close."

_**We are. I am FirstSecond Friend. I am you.**_

"Talk about a multiple personality complex."

"_**You made me."**_

Katie cocked her head. The voice sounded more like a whisper now, rather than a telepathic voice. Down the hallway, she noticed a slight shape starting to form.

"I'm pretty sure I would have remembered something like that," Katie said to it. "However, my memory can go fuzzy on this planet. Maybe you could remind me exactly when I made you."

"_**When you left me."**_

Katie inhaled sharply, eyes widening as the blood drained from her face. The shape had partially solidified and stepped forward where she could see it, the dark red blood on it standing out against the white of its shirt.

"You're dead. I know you're dead."

"_**Am I?"**_

"I watched you die."

"_**No Kavrin. You made me die."**_

Katie broke, taking off down the hallway. Behind her, the shape smiled and dissipated.

* * *

><p>Jack found Jo an hour later down in the holding cells. Literally in the holding cells. She was sitting next to Janet, TORCHWOOD's resident Weevil, stroking her head with gloved hands and talking to her.<p>

"Yeah. I know. It's rude of them to do that to you. You are a great listener though. And a good conversationalist. Well, that's because they can't understand you. Just try to be patient with them. Humans are stupid and arrogant, but they mean well. Most of the time, anyway."

"Enjoying yourself?"

Jo looked up at Jack, her green eyes slightly distrustful. "Did you need something?"

"Making sure I know where you are."

"Now you know. Now scoot. You're interrupting."

Jack looked curiously at Janet. "You can talk to her?"

"You do it all the time," Jo said in an accusing tone. "Just because you think she can't hear you doesn't mean anything."

"Meaning…"

"Weevil's are telepathic, moron. All you humans keep taking turns coming down here to stare at her, as though if you stare long and hard enough all your problems will be solved. Well, she hears all your problems until they start to become hers."

"You can hear her thoughts."

Jo wrinkled her nose. "Sort of. I get pictures and feelings mostly and have to fill in the rest. I collect the energy from brain waves, but that doesn't make me telepathic."

"Why are you in there anyway?" Jack asked.

"I felt like it. Can't talk to someone through a plastic wall, you know."

Jack studied Jo for a few moments. "You look more like you're hiding from something."

Jo smiled wryly. "I think we all are. Some more than others, but we all have memories to run from."

"Which memory are you hiding from?"

"None of your business," Jo said sharply. "Look, if you don't need anything, and aren't going to ask any of the questions I know you have, get ye gone from here."

Jack sat down across from the cell.

"I've yet to get a good reason on why you carry that pouch around all the time."

Jo's free hand went up to grasp the pouch automatically. "Why is it so important?"

"You came out of a drug induced sleep solely for the reason of protecting it, when you did nothing about being stripped."

"I suppose it would make you curious."

Jack stared at Jo. She sighed. Opening the pouch with one hand, she pulled out a smooth, black stone and held it up for Jack to see.

"If I told you the Doctor gave it to me, would you believe me?"

"No."

Jo smiled lightly. "Not surprised. Still, it is a sort of a keepsake from the time I met him. It's really the reason I met him. Well, one of the reasons." She gazed at the rock before putting it away. "It's a DNA transporter. The race that built me placed it in my path in hopes of using it as a recall button. It activated early when a Grixzen mercenary bit my shoulder. I landed in TARDIS, panicked and tried to shoot the Doctor, and in the end escaped being returned to my creators."

"You were made?"

"It's not as though someone like me grows on trees," Jo said in a cutting tone. "I had to be constructed. Before you ask, I've never met my maker, nor do I intend to. The day I do, I'll either be killed, recycled, or die avoiding either fate. So, next question."

"How often have you died?"

"Only twice. I never know it happened until I wake up. It's like falling asleep, that's all," Jo said, shrugging. "What about you?" she asked. Jack laughed humorlessly.

"More often than I could ever count. It doesn't happen the way yours did though."

"What are you talking about?"

"Just before you came back, everything vanished. Honestly everything. The only thing that still existed was my heartbeat."

Jo clicked her teeth, thinking. Mindlessly, she reached into her pocket and unwrapped one of her candies. Rolling it around her mouth, she answered,

"It sounds like all the energy around you vanished. I must take it all in and use it for physical reconstruction. Only thing that makes sense."

Jo fixed Jack with a quiet stare. "I know that now you're wondering why that doesn't happen to you. Well, I can't give you a solid answer, but I can make an educated guess. Wanna hear it?"

Without waiting for an answer, she plunged into her explanation. "You, mi querido capitán, are stuffed practically to the bursting point with temporal energy. Now, I really only learned about it the day before I got pulled through the Rift, but when you hang around energy as long as I do, you pick up a few things. Temporal energy is a form of potential energy. You can live out your potential with more time and you need more time to live out your full potential, etcetera. So, you literally have so much potential that you can't die. Don't worry though, you'll run out eventually."

Jack thought about that for a few moments, and then nodded. "Better explanation than he could give me."

"How recently did you see him?"

Jack smiled secretively. "The end of time."

"Sounds fun."

"Not really. We set loose a mad Time Lord and he took over the earth for a year until the Doctor reversed time. Well, Martha did most of the work, but the Doctor saved everything ultimately."

"There was another Time Lord? I thought he was the last. Everyone else got stuck in a time lock."

"One escaped."

"I suppose that's all it would take," Jo said quietly. She straightened and smiled lightly. "So, you met Martha Jones. That must have been something."

Jack smiled. "She certainly is. Brilliant, tough woman. You would not want to be on her bad side."

"She was the one right after the blond chick, right?"

Jack seemed to grow suspicious. "How do you know about Rose?"

"Ha ha! Finally I have a name," Jo said. "I caught a peek of her in the Doctor's mind. Was she the one who left you this way?"

Jack held steady, finally answering. "Yes. She had taken the entire time vortex into her head, using it to save the Doctor from a race called the Daleks."

Jo nodded. "I thought she might have been. She had that feeling about her. The Daleks are the up-side-down gold garbage buckets, right? With the plunger arms and things?"

"Never heard them described quite that way, but yes. They've had all the emotions bred out of them except hate. They live to destroy everything that is not them."

"Space Nazi's?"

Jack laughed lightly. "Yeah. Space Nazi's."

Jo was silent for a moment, thinking. "I wonder if the Doctor will ever recover from her. Rose, I mean."

"Why, have you set your sights on him?"

Jo fixed Jack with a look. "He's even older than you are, Skippy."

Jack shrugged. "By Time Lord standards he probably isn't much older than you."

"Look," Jo said acidly. "We're just two people who found each other. No more, no less."

"You make it sound romantic."

"It's not. I was a stray that could have taken care of itself, but he felt sorry enough to give me a lift. That's all. He's a father figure, a brother, and a friend. No, my only friend. And that's the end of it."

Jack didn't say anything in reply. Jo ignored him, leaning her head back and closed her eyes, still stroking Janet, who was now asleep.

They stayed there the rest of the night, both wondering who the observer was really.

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	10. Chapter 10

Gwen pulled up short when she saw Jo in the target practice area. It wasn't an unusual sight; in fact it was rather common. But the current weapon lying in front of Jo was unlike anything else she had produced.

It was much like a shoulder-mounted grenade launcher, except it was twice as big. Straps held braces that covered Jo's torso, as though the cannon weighed an incredible amount.

Jo glanced at Gwen and smiled. "Gwyneth! Morning to you. Is it a nice day out?"

Gwen shook her head. "No, it's raining like crazy outside. What is that?"

"This," Jo said, picking up the cannon and setting it on her shoulder with a grunt, "is something that should only be handled by someone who eats a lot of calcium and goes to the gym frequently." She pulled a lever on the cannon's side. It started to glow green and purple, and a loud electric sound came from it. Jo pointed it at the target dummies that were lined up in a column all the way to the far wall. Gwen stared as the cannon whined louder and louder, charging. Jo was smiling broadly in anticipation.

With a loud pop, the cannon discharged. Gwen blinked, waiting. Jo set the cannon down as Gwen asked, "Was something supposed to happen?"

"Wait for it."

Three seconds later, the whole row of dummies disintegrated, as well as a large section of the back wall. Jo jumped up, beaming.

"Yes! Oh, sweet! It still works!" She turned to Gwen, holding out a gloved hand. "High five!"

Gwen walked past her, staring at the piles of dust. "What was that?"

"That, my dear Gwyneth, is what happens when you fire a delayed sub-sonic disintegration pulse at something. Great range, goes through anything in its path. Only downside is the weight. Then again, most of these things are operated by the Tilions. They're about 3 times the size of humans. Funny thing about them is that they can only speak in rhyming iambic pentameter. It would have been great to listen to, but they could only hear in rhyming iambic pentameter as well. Have you ever tried to insult someone in rhyming iambic pentameter? So…bloody…annoying. And what was worse was that they looked like zucchinis, and there aren't many words -actually, I don't think there are any real words- that rhyme with the word 'zucchini'. I had to keep switching languages, and making stuff up, and it was just a mess."

Jo reached into her pocket and pulled out a paper bag, holding it out to Gwen. "Toffee?"

"No. Thanks, I'm fine."

"Oh, don't worry," Jo said quickly. "These are normal candies. Not doctored or anything."

"I'm good."

Jo shrugged and ate one herself. Stuffing the bag back into her pocket, she picked up the cannon. "Well, catch up with you later."

Gwen could only stare in mild confusion as Jo wandered back up the stairs.

* * *

><p>Gwen tapped on Jack's office door as she walked in. He looked up at her. "What's up?"<p>

"I think your find is starting to go crazy again."

Jack sighed. "Just what we need. What did she do?"

"Nothing, she's just acting a little…odd. Out of character."

"But she hasn't tried killing any one."

"Unless you count the targets that used to be in the shooting range, no."

"Why, what happened to them?"

Gwen smiled lightly. "They've been disintegrated by a sub-sonic pulse."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "I'm surprised she was able to get it working again. Those things are hard to fix and even harder to carry. What exactly was she doing that made you worried?"

"She went into some dialogue about a race of aliens that talked funny and then offered me a noninfectious candy. Just out of the normal for her."

Jack shrugged. "Well, I'll keep an eye on her. It could simply be a teenage phase, and as long as she isn't trying to drain the life from us, it shouldn't be a problem."

* * *

><p>"In 1814 we took a little trip<p>

Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip.

We took a little bacon and we took a little beans

And we caught the bloody British in the town of New Orleans."

Owen blinked in confusion at Jo. She was fixing something that looked like the bracelet Jack always wore. The song sounded like it could have come from the 50's, but Owen couldn't be sure. She continued her song as she kept working.

"We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin.

There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.

We fired once more and they began to runnin' on

Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico."

"Interesting tune," Owen said dryly. "Can't say much for the lyrics though."

"Your own faults," Jo said, not looking up at him. "You were the ones who were trespassing on our rights again. We just told you to stop in the best way we could. The results of that chemical you found on the blowfish man are pinned to the corkboard over there, if that's what you're looking for."

Owen unpinned the test results, scanning the list of elements as Jo kept talking. "Nothing special by itself, but you're lucky you sent it to me. Add coal dust to the whole mix and you get a nice boom. On the other hand, if you put it in a pot with Portobello mushrooms it makes a lovely sauce. Goes great with lamb."

The bracelet sparked suddenly and Jo slapped her instruments down on the desk. "Bother! I really thought I had it that time."

"Had what?"

"Jack gave this to me to see if I could get it working again. Damn that sonic of his! Breaks more things than it fixes."

"Sonic?"

"Sonic screwdriver," Jo said, picking up a magnifying glass and peering at the vortex manipulator. "The Doctor carries one with him all the time. Looks like a silver pen with a blue light on one end. Does everything you can imagine. He promised to give me one for my 200th, but I've sworn I'll steal his first. One day, I won't give it back." She carefully set down the magnifying glass and tossed the bracelet to Owen.

"Give that back to Skippy for me, would you? Still works for everything else, and the batteries are charged now. Oh, and if he could get me some weapons grade uranium, I'd be much obliged. I have a Quirxan communication system that needs a new battery, and uranium should do nicely."

"I'll see what I can do."

Jo beamed. "Thanks." Opening a desk drawer, she pulled out a paper bag and offered it to Owen. "Toffee? Non-infected."

"Thanks. I'm good."

Jo shrugged and stuck one in her own mouth before wandering off down an aisle.

* * *

><p>Jack walked into storage, which was now Jo's home. Her world, actually. After all, she'd been living down there for three months, and almost never came out. Jack didn't go down very often; it wasn't as though he and Jo ever talked about a lot of things. There was the Doctor, but swapping stories were always best when the subject was there to embarrass. And anyway, just getting near her meant he ran the risk of putting her over the edge. Apparently he smelled good, though she still made it very clear she wasn't attracted to him.<p>

Now they did have something to talk about. Each member of his staff had come to him, each with a separate story of how Jo seemed to be going crazy again. Not serial killer crazy, just locked-in-the-basement crazy. After Owen had heard her singing, Tosh had told Jack that Jo had reprogrammed the entire computer system overnight. It wasn't a bad thing, since it was operating 200% better than before, but to do it in only one night…! Even then, Jack had decided to leave Jo to herself. He hadn't gotten worried until Ianto reported that she had refused fresh coffee and had instead asked for tea with lemon, milk, and sugar in it.

"Jo?" Jack called into the now organized room. "You still down here someplace?"

"No, I happen to be up."

Jack craned his neck back to stare at the ceiling. Jo was crouched on it like SpiderMan. She waved at him, grinning broadly.

"Suction climbers. Found them in one of the boxes and just had to try them out. There's another set on my desk if you want to give it a shot."

Jack picked up the lightweight objects curiously. Jo's voice floated down to him from the ceiling. "They slip on over your shoes and fit on your hands like gloves."

Shrugging, Jack did as was instructed. Jo continued coaching him. "There, now just walk up to a wall and start climbing."

Again, Jack did as ordered and was soon crouched in front of Jo on the ceiling. She was still beaming. "Grand fun, isn't it?"

"You've gone completely stir crazy, haven't you?"

Jo's face became instantly serious. "You have no idea. I'd probably kill myself if I didn't know I'd come right back."

Jo jerked on her hands and feet, causing herself to drop off the ceiling. She landed in a crouching position and took off the suction climbers. Jack crawled back down by way of the wall.

"Thing is Skippy, I've got the worst case of cabin fever ever, and I am the worst possible choice to have cabin fever. I haven't been outside in three months, I haven't done anything really productive for a week, and I have taken in no new information for three weeks." Jo sighed. "I hate this. I should be in the year 30,000 running from the Gralflaxin beast of Zarnoff Two, not shelving board games from retirement homes in 1942!"

"If things were getting so bad, why didn't you say so?"

"Because you can't do anything about it!" Jo said. "There are only two things that could do any good. The biggest one would be for the Doctor to show up, which isn't likely. The other would be for me to get out of the Hub and go do something. Problem is, I have enough trouble restraining myself from attacking anyone with just you five about. If I went outside, I'd go into overload and blow up a block before you could say "Oh shit."

Jack smiled. "If you could go outside and not be bombarded by everyone's brain waves, would you do it?"

"In heartbeat."

"Then grab a few of your mints and follow me."

* * *

><p>Katie followed Jack trying to figure out where they were going. He had already led her outside, but it had been very brief. They were back underground again, walking through a series of tunnels. Jack stopped in front of what looked like an old maintenance elevator. He opened the doors and stepped in, motioning for Katie to join him.<p>

"I found this awhile back. It's never visited by anyone; the entrance has some kind of natural perception filter on it. But, if I push the right button on my vortex manipulator…"

There was a sudden flash. Katie stumbled and Jack caught her arm, holding her upright.

"…I get here."

Katie's eyes widened and she stepped a little ways away from Jack, looking out. "It's magnificent," she breathed.

Katie was gazing out on the whole city of Cardiff from the top of a building. She closed her eyes, and for the first time in two months, she saw no Rift energy. It was all down below, its own weight holding it down. There was almost no heat energy, and sound could barely reach her. The only mental waves came from Jack, and what little light there was came from the city far below her.

"Like it?"

"I love it." Katie breathed in deeply, giddy with the fact that it was so easy. "I feel like I can move again."

"I know it's not much, but it'll have to do for now."

"Oh, but it helps." Katie turned round to face Jack. "Could I get the access code out of you, so I can come here on my own?"

"Yes to the first, no to the second," Jack said. "Whenever you need the air, one of us needs to be with you. Call it a chaperone, but I don't want something to happen and have to go hunting you down if you lose it."

"I'll take it."

Katie sat down carefully, holding her legs to her chest as she looked out over the bay. Jack sat down next to her. For once, she didn't feel the urge to latch onto him like a leech.

"You're taking this pretty hard."

Katie smiled lightly. "TARDIS is my home, time is my backyard and space my tire swing. TORCHWOOD is like being stuck in an apartment with relatives you can hardly stand. No offense."

"None taken," Jack said, smiling. "I felt somewhat the same, but not quite so drastically. I'd been a time agent for a while, so I was used to staying in one place for prolonged periods. I also found TORCHWOOD, and I was able to stay busy, move about. I'm surprised you held out this long."

"So am I. When the Doctor shows up, I'm getting some kind of phone from him so that I can call if this happens again. No, I'll just rebuild my communicator. I used to have a communicator that could send messages across time and space. Took me three weeks just to gather all the parts. Wish I still had it."

"What happened to it?"

"It got crushed in a cave in. That was the day I died for the first time, actually. I also ended up losing one third of the survivors of an attack. And then I proved stone can bleed."

"Sounds like a busy day."

Katie smiled. "Yeah. It was right before I went through the Rift, actually. Blimey, was that a confusing trip."

"What was it like, going through the Rift?"

Katie clicked her teeth together. "It was like everything was happening at once. Literally everything, across time and space; it was right in front of me. But at the same time, there was nothing happening. I could still think, but the thoughts were fragmented. And then there was something in there, something living in the Rift. I could feel it latch onto me. It hurt a lot."

"Something in the Rift?"

Katie nodded. "Yeah. Can't say I liked it very much."

"Did it come through with you?"

Jack's tone was more serious than she usually heard. "I don't think it did. I haven't felt anything like it since, and it's been two months."

Jack nodded, appeased. "So, bleeding stone and a trip through the Rift. TARDIS travel sure takes you places."

Katie pulled her legs tighter against her chest. She sighed. "Oh, I can't wait to get out of here. I will one day, even if I have to write him a letter and leave it where I know he'll find it, and then I'm going to race across those stars until I can go no further, then start all over again."

Jack smiled as Katie fell silent. They stared out at the ocean, each lost in their memories of the Doctor.

* * *

><p>Far down below, in the city streets, a figure started to form out of the air. He stared up at the building next to him, his entire being focused on who was up there.<p>

"I can hear you, Kathryn Trouble Moore. I know exactly where you are. One day soon, I'm going to pull you out of your realm of relative safety, and then I'll have you. I'll catch you with the one piece of bait you can't resist."

The man picked up a cracked mirror from the alley he was in and examined his appearance. His hair was messy, and he wore a pin-stripe suit and trench coat over his thin frame. The shoes on his feet were red, looking worn from age and use. With a broad grin revealing crooked teeth, he looked back up at the building.

"Soon, Katie. Very, very soon, I'll have you standing in front of me. I'll take your head in my hands and stare into your lovely green eyes as I absorb every last one of the thoughts racing through your brilliant jewel of a mind. I will look into your eyes until the moment you truly die."

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p>

And that ends that episode. Katie's trapped on earth, she can't signal the Doctor yet, but it almost sounds as though he's already there. Or is he?

You'll get your answers in my next episode, "The Child I Once Was." Leave a review telling me your prediction of what might be next!

Also, before I go on, I want to thank animemonkey13 for all the amazing reviews I've been getting. animemonkey13 has been very consistent in responding to my chapters. Thank you again!


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